It’s not every day you can get advice from a living legend! In a recent ABC Radio interview, Stevie Nicks chatted about her new friendship with Katy Perry and shared the one word all musicians and artists should eliminate from their vocabulary.

Nicks said, “[Katy] said to me, ‘So when you did Bella Donna [Nicks’ 1981 debut solo album] who were your rivals? And I was, like, speechless. I was, like, ‘I didn’t have any rivals.’ And she said, ‘Really? None?’ I said, ‘No…the girls in Heart [were] friends. Pat Benatar [was a] friend.”

“You don’t have any rivals. So forget that. Never say that word again. You don’t have rivals. All of those girls? Friends. You’ll probably work with all of them at some point. Friends.’”

Katy Perry seems to have taken Nicks’ advice to heart. Rolling Stone quotes Perry as recently saying, “You want to feel music. You want it to resonate and relate to you. You can’t look at it like a competition because you ruin the reason why you love music.”

In our current culture of gossip blogs and tabloids pitting pop stars against each other, it is easy to think of other artists as competition. However, feuding and fighting take your energy and time away from making music and other constructive activities. It’s far healthier to focus more on being the best version of yourself than it is to obsess about what a “rival” is doing.

The reality is that artists need each other as collaborators and supporters, just like you need your classmates, neighbors, and coworkers. Ditch the word “rivals” and you’ll find yourself living in a friendlier world.